Excerpt

Ian Bishop was very serious minded but there was a jovial demeanor about him. His sky blue eyes were full of life and twinkled with a bit of mischief. There was so much love inside of him and that gave him the desire to share his life with others. But he wondered as he fell asleep and his spirit was loosed to explore a land of dreams and visions, Could my true love be out there waiting for me to appear before her? Would I recognize love if I stared her in the face? Would I be brave enough to go down that road again?

Whenever you make a change in your life, that decision alters the path you take. All of this has to do with predestination and alternate courses through our lives. We all have to travel through this life from birth to death but we do have control over the way we get from point A to point B. This fact is referred to as “TIMELINES”. Death is not the way we have envisioned. It is simply a transition from the three dimensional physical realm into the seven dimensional spirit realm.

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Ian popped the cork and handed Ekaterina a goblet. He filled her glass and then his own. “To love” he said as he clinked his wineglass against hers. Kat simply said, “Vashe zdorovie”, and sipped the cool fluid. The wine went down smoothly as she admired the hand cut Austrian Crystal and the resonating sound it made when Ian touched his glass to hers. It sounded like the beginning of a symphony mixing with the percussion sound of the crackling fireplace. The music wafted across the room in living stereo. Her heart strings were playing like a finely tuned violin and when Ian spoke it was like an entire bass section of the orchestra came into play. Ekaterina was thinking that she had never been happier in her life and Ian loved the intimacy of that moment. It also reminded him of a symphony. The music they made together was beautiful and the words never got in the way.

The entertainment that night was performed by waves of sand pipers scurrying along the waters edge. Seagulls diving on their own seafood dinners and a million uncharted stars, only matched by the light in Kat’s eyes. The waves rolled in as the moonlight danced off the surf.

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The bar in the Alfama District of Lisbon was called “Captain’s Nest.” There was always melancholy fado music playing in the background and seafaring men being tended to by ladies of the evening. He was seated alone in a dark corner when he was approach by a man that appeared to be much too clean cut to ever be in a place like this. The superficial layers of paint, smoke and old plaster spoke of ages past and the floor had not been swept clean in months.

“Good afternoon Sir” the man said, “My name is of no importance to you, but I have an offer for you that will be of great importance.”
This was the first time in a long time that any man had called him “Sir”, even the crew of the “Seven Seas” would just call him “Cap”.

The nameless man dressed in a black long coat and a wide brimmed fedora pulled down to his eyes, placed an envelope in front of him. Captain Hornblower picked it up and peered inside. His eyes bulged when he saw more money than he had seen in the last twenty years. Before he could speak the man said “I have been authorized to offer this money to you. All you have to do is load a container on your ship here at the Port of Lisboa without asking any questions, and off load that container at the Inner City Harbor of Baltimore, Maryland, USA.”

“Mister, you bought yourself a deal. I don’t care what you are smuggling into the U.S.” Captain Hornblower leaned toward the man sitting across from him and said secretly, “What’s in the container anyway? Cuban cigars? Hash?”

The man in black reached for the envelope, and then backed away because of Cap’s bad breath. The captain smelled like a fish that had died five days ago. Hornblower pulled the package of money back and repeated “Hell, I don’t care what’s in it. Just get it loaded on my ship and give me my itinerary. You could have the devil locked up in there for all I care.”

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The evil spirits began to move in and around Amid Okur, twirling and dancing as if in an ancient ceremonial ritual. From the front, they appeared to be angels of light. The brightness hurt his eyes! From the back side they were nothing but shadow and darkness. Amid felt as though he could not breathe and began pushing back against the spirits but his arms went through the apparitions and the ghostly creatures covered him until he felt smothered and could not breathe.

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Ekaterina phoned Ian Bishop yesterday. She said she wanted to hear his voice and told him “You are a man for all seasons and a man that truly understands love is more important than money, years of age difference, nationality or cultural differences.” She was trying to impress Bishop that she was an intelligent young lady. Miss Troscheva felt guilty for conning Bishop, but had convinced herself that she would make it up to him. She really did care for him.

She was new to this game of romantic computer scams. She had been told by a new friend she had met at the Moscow Employment Agency that “This is a good way of making big money fast.” The girl at the agency had also told her “Those rich Americans can afford to pay for their dreams. Give them something to dream about!”